Närke Kaggen Stormaktsporter

Brewed by Närke Kulturbryggeri
Style: Imperial Stout
Örebro, Sweden

Bottle tasted at Copenhagen Beerfestival 2007. (Vintage 2005) Black colour with a nice head. Nice port aroma with notes of roastedness oily and sweet chocolate. Wonderfull tasty and smooth flavour of chocolate, port-like, roastedness and hints of oak and little alcohol. Very nice endeed. I also tasted version 2006, but I prefer 2005.

Bottle. Black beer with a light head. The aroma is quite malty and the flavour is very strongly malty. Overall a nice strongly malty beer.

25cL bottle, 2006 vintage, courtesy of omhper. Thanks a ton, Per! Pours a dark, oily blackish-brown color; thin, dark tan head with patchy lacing. Intensely sweet, syrupy aroma: tons of nougat and dark chocolate and a hint of licorice; the barrel presence is just enough: slightly tart, toasty bourbon and well-roasted; nothing harsh. Very woody, toasted oak and cedar upfront; excellent bourbon character: mildest sour-mash quality (if at all) with loads of nougat and milk and dark chocolate; slightest roughness from the bourbon, but otherwise a generous, layered BA impy stout; the barrel itself seems to be the highlight here, and it would be interesting to try this alongside the regular Stormaktsporter. The beer underneath seems to lack the density of something like BA Speedway or BA Blackout, and that’s the only setup for this beer; the barreling itself is beautifully done. Lengthy, milk chocolate and bourbon-tinged finish; well-integrated and balanced end.

2006 bottle version. Opaque black, almost like engine oil with a small fading brown head. I had my doubts about this one, thaught it was overrated but after tasting it I must agree with the most of the raters here. The aroma and flavor develop during the tasting and you can almost say you’re tasting a different beer in the end than in the beginning. Sweet aroma of raisins, prunes etc. A deep flavor of caramel malts and even some rancid fruit taste but in a good way. Also chocolate and honey come out in the flavor. Very malty finish and palate, even some yeasts coming thru. Simply a great beer that you would like to drink more often!

I wasn’t fully appreciative of the status this beer has on this site when sampling but perhaps a good thing? (helps to not be swayed by the numbers). Anyway, I’m mostly with the weatherman on this beer (see note from 31/10). A dead ringer in appearance to the Hr Frederiksen Amager. Nose is subdued with coffee, mild chocolate. Soft palate structure, actually quite seamless, with a woody, spirity note that’s not really adding to the beer. The fruitcake, zinfandel-like flavour is ok but the disjointed flavours from the spirity note mess with my head.

Bottle version 2006. Special thanks to Jack Pano from Sweden for bringing me this gift from the brewer. Pours a blacker than black beer with a solid brown to darkbrown head. The aroma is roasty with vanilla oak, coffee and fine chocolate and some notes of apples too. The appearance is simply superb with nice lacing. Flavour of slight peated malts, dark chocolate, coffe mokka, raisin bread and a hint of honey leaves this beer in a perfect balance. The use of noble hops comes out just enough in the taste but not overwhelming. The slight bitter aftertaste with notes of basterd sugar keeps on talking while some alocohol is well noticable but not attacking. N° 1, IMO a well deserved place and certainly not overrated at all and after all a superb brew and some left to stash away for quite some time :-) Nice to notice too that I am the 100rd RBian who rates this excellent beer!

Very attractieve looking beer, deep black with intens brown edges and with a thick whipped mocca like creamy head on top. Aroma is delicate and very fine. It has great aromas of mocca, black chocolate, sping flowers and orange boosems. All these fine hints are working well with the touches of honey, vanilla pods, fine toasted oak and delicate fruity sensations. The smell of fresh torrified coffee beans is not far away, it works so well with the caracteristics of the best roasted barley and some soft cara-malts. The taste is like the smell suggests, very intens and super elegant at the same time. The smooth mouthfeel is so refined and not heavey at all. Lots of fine coffee hints, black chocolate, vanilla, soft toasted oak, wild flowers, cammomille, honey, maple sirup, lots of cerials burnd raisins like in the baked crust of raisin bread. The beer has a great balance and a medium body with a super refined lingering afthertaste of hops and elegant and tasty bitters. I think this beer deserves to be the Nr 1 in the world. By giving this beer full marks I feel like Iconoclasting St Sixtus, but with the afthertaste of this outstanding Kaggen Stormaktsporter in my mouth I had no other option.

Bottle@Home, vintage 06, Mar 08, 4.7: I’m such a lucky guy to get to try this again. Thanks a lot Menno! Strong moccha, honey and whiskey aroma. Pours a thick black liquid with a dark brown head leaving nice lace. Sweet, chocolate, moccha, honey, whiskey and vanilla. Thick and warming mouthfeel. Wonderful balance, very flavorful. Bottle@Home, Jan 07, 4.5: Peaty, smoke and moccha aroma with a hint of varnish. Black as hell, brown head, good lace. Light sweet, moccha, peaty, coffee, roasted bitter, oily. The flavor doesn’t disappear. I guess after breakfast tomorrow morning it will still be there. Wow!